St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-02-17
THE RAILROAD DISASTER.
Notes from the Wreck.


The hearing by the railroad COM
mission has continued through the
week and was closed Tuesday.
Gen. Horace Porter, vice president
of the Pullman company, says it is
years since they have had broken
wheel or journal reported.
A correspondent of the Boston Jour
nal says of this accident that, "The
loss to the railroad company has been
much overestimated. The cars and
bridge were fully insured, and there
has been but little interruption to traf-
fic. 1t is thought that the earnings of
the road for the last seven months in
excess of the interest will nearly, if not
quite, meet the cost of the accident"
The new bridge at Hartford was COM
pleted and tested on Sunday and traf-
fic was resumed over it on Monday.
During the week of its building
through trains ran over the Passump-
sic via Wells River and Montpelier.
The new and permanent. bridge will
be of iron, placed in position as soon
as possible, the bids for which are
now being received by the officers of
the road.
Governor j. Gregory Smith, presi-
dent of the Central Vermont road, has
been interviewed on the matter of
heating and lighting cars. He claims
that all we'll tested improvements have
been adopted by the Central road. He
thinks there is as much danger from
lights as from stoves and would he
glad to substitute anything else which
will satisfy the public and make them
safer, but claims that as far as the
stove is concerned nothing practicable
has as yet been suggested to take it's
place.
A careful estimate has been made of
the incidental expenses of the wreck,
such as caring for the injured and
dead, clearing the wreck, erecting a
new trestle bridge, replacing the burn
ed cars and substituting first-class
iron bridge for the one destroyed, and
the total loss foOts up less than $50, 900.
Under no circumstances will it exceed
this amount. The company proposes
to begin the construction of an iron
bridge $50 feet long over White river
at once, and tenders for building the
new bridge have already been invited.
This estimate, of course, does not in
clude damages for personal injuries by
whOmsOever paid.
Later computations of the statistics
of the disaster show that there were
81 supposed to have been on the ILL
fated train, though it is claimed by
some that there were but IS. Lists
prepared Monday show 10 dead bodies
identified 5 known to be dead but not
identified who are believed to have
taken the train, and have not been
heard from since the accident; miss
ing and believed to have been killed.
The known survivors are AZ in num-
Der, being IL uninjured and 35 injur-
ed. If the total number on the train
was IS it would follow that 80 persons
were killed, being one more than the
count of the bodies made by Gov. Pin
gree aud Mr.. Watson.
w. A. Stowell, Superintendent of
the White Mountains and Vermont di
visions of the Boston and Lowell rail
road. says he thinks the time is not far
distant when the lighting and heating
of all passenger cars on through trains
in the winter will be from a separate
car, next back of the locomotive, and
the lighting and ventilation in the
summer. This car will contain an en-
CINE to generate electricity, with steam
for heating in winter, and current of
air for ventilation in the summer.
w hen cars are mus IlSnbou, lOdtOu anu
ventilated there will be no smoke and
cinder nuisance, and no burning to
death of passengers from coalstoves
and Oil-lamps.
Springfield Republican: One point
about the White River Junction disas-
ter is pretty clear. There were 81 peO-
pie on that train unaccOunted for, and
only 81 bodies have been recovered,
according to the statements from the
morgue. The chance of bodies escaping
through the ice is so small as not to be
worth counting, and the inference is
that the bodies were burned so COM
pletely that the three or four boxes of
small bones and pieces standing about
the coffin shop contain the remains of
the six missing persons. Before the
number of persons on the wrecked
train was fixed, the surgeons testified
that one person might easily be dis
tributed through several boxes, and
the apparent number of dead thus be
increased; but they did not enlarge
upon the equally obvious cOrollary.